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III.
EXTRACTS
FROM
DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES TAKEN DURING A PEDESTRIAN TOUR IN THE ALPS.
(Published in 1793.)
PLEASURES OF THE PEDESTRIAN.
No sad vacuities his heart annoy;—
Blows not a Zephyr but it whispers joy;
For him lost flowers their idle sweets exhale;
He tastes the meanest note that swells the gale;
For him sod-seats the cottage-door adorn,
And peeps the far-off spire, his evening bourn!
Dear is the forest frowning o'er his head,
And dear the green-sward to his velvet tread;
Moves there a cloud o'er mid-day's flaming eye?
Upward he looks—"and calls it luxury;"
Kind Nature's charities his steps attend,
In every babbling brook he finds a friend,
While chast'ning thoughts of sweetest use, bestowed
By Wisdom, moralize his pensive road.
Host of his welcome inn, the noon-tide bower,
